Month: July 2025
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SOFT LAUNCH It is traditional for governments to slip out news of their most depressing failures in the dying moments of Parliamentary “term” in the hope that MPs and journos alike are keener to hit the fleshpots of the Mediterranean or more exotic holiday destinations than to pursue the latest delay to HS2, or estimated…
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END OF TERM ENNUI The spigot of daily UK “news” wound down this week as Parliament headed towards recess (Commons – 22nd July, Lords – 24th July.) “The Grid” is, it seems, an effective news management system: about 75% of what we think of as news turns out to be just propaganda. The British Malaise…
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16/17 YEAR OLDS WILL BE ABLE TO VOTE at the next General Election. This will be implemented by the introduction of a new Elections and Democracy Bill which will be piloted by Angela Rayner and Rushanara Ali. Secondary legislation will also set out the necessary digital ID solutions for implementation (which makes one wonder if…
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STORMCLOUDS GATHER Hot on the heels of last week’s Welfare Reform climb-down and the forewarning of incipient rebellion gathering amongst Labour backbenchers over Education policy changes involving SEND, comes an underwhelmed reaction to the announcement of the Anglo-French “One In, One Out” illegal arrivals pilot scheme. Then a spat between the Deputy Prime Minister and…
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U-TURN IF YOU WANT TO… It turns out that watching slow-motion car crashes is not so much fun. Following the reinstatement of pensioners’ winter fuel payment just a month ago, “justified” by HMG’s sudden discovery that the economic catastrophe that they thought they had inherited from the Conservatives had miraculously cured itself, comes the inevitably…